Keeper Of Their Hearts (EG/PJO) - Book One

II. I Turn Into A Monster Myself

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We ran through the woods and the rain, the sound of what sounded like a car slamming into the asphalt on a nearby road as if it had been thrown by something making us pick up the pace further. There was also the sounds of sparks flying off and skidding as the object moved along the road behind us for a while before it stopped, which was then followed by the sound of an explosion, which made me jump in fright.

"That doesn't sound very good at all.. I pray to god that it isn't.. him.." Dawson said nervously as we continued running through the woods. Judging from the way he said that last word, I had a bad feeling as to what was out there right now. I hoped I didn't have to find out exactly what he meant.

Lightning continued to flash, and thunder continued to rumble as the rain kept falling, illuminating the landscape ahead of us from time to time. After some time, one flash of lightning gave us a quick appearance of the clear slope of a hill ahead of us.

"Finally!" Dawson shouted, even as the same flash revealed to me three figures running up said slope. "We're almost there! Keep it going, kid!"

We kept going and had only just cleared the treeline into the clearing when we heard another monstrous roar to our right, and the sound of feet stomping up the hill. Dawson's face morphed into one of pure horror. "UP THE HILL KID, NOW!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "RUN!"

Like before, I didn't stop to ask him anything about it. We took off, up the wet and slippery slope of the hill, following after the three figures I had seen earlier, who through squinting, I could just make them out at the crest of the hill, by this large pine tree.

Another roar sound behind us, and I turned around to look at what was behind us, just as another flash of lightning lit up the area. I found myself staring at the same bull head creature that along with the cyclopes, had attacked me and Dawson earlier. I had only seen its head through the trees back then, but now in this brief flash of light, I could see him fully and my god, was it fucking terrifying as hell.

This dude was about seven feet tall, coated in fur, wearing nothing except Fruit Of The Loom underwear for some reason. I think I now understood exactly why Dawson was so terrified of this guy now. Because when I saw him, since my 5th Grade teacher had taught us some Greek Mythology, I had a pretty good idea of exactly what was stomping up the hill behind us.

It was the Minotaur.

This made it a pretty shitty week for me honestly.. this whole trip just to get to Camp Half Blood, wherever it was.. probably pretty close to where we were now from what Dawson had said. First, my parents get killed by a Lydian Drakon.. and now, on the slopes of a hill over a thousand miles away from home in Long Island, I come face to face with the damn Minotaur himself. What a load of horse dung this hand life has dealt me with this week is right now. There were no other words to even describe this rotten luck.

We were running, but the Minotaur was faster.

"Duck, kid!" Dawson yelled, pushing me out of the way as the Minotaur took a swipe at both of us from behind. I fell to the ground, getting covered in mud a little bit as I rolled a few feet.